Premier Wang Jia Sha    狀元王家沙  

I was there on a Thursday evening. My party of 3 was seated immediately. Service was prompt and attentive. The restaurant was busy although not full. The menu was very interesting and rather elaborate. Everything looks good. In the end we decided to dump the convention and went for the side dishes for dinner instead.

We were glad we did that because the food came very quickly, every dish was superb and we got to sample a fairly wide variety of the Shanghainese fare. We ordered savoury dishes that could be eaten on its own, without rice. We also had the ubiquitous Dan Dan Mian. Done to perfection.

The restaurant also has a good selection of Shanghainese DimSum.

We were totally stuffed and the bill came up to merely $340, which is very affordable. The deco is tastefully done, the seats comfortable, food very satisfying, service good and the price attractive. That's the hallmarks of a great restaurant that I would love bringing friends to.

a nite for friends gathering. Overall, we ordered quite a lot of dishes, we could finish them all by three people. Actually the portion of each dish wasn't that 'big'. Kind of 'oily' but acceptable. Spicy and very delicious!

I was surprised that there was availability for booking just 45 minutes before our dinner on a Friday night. We arrived at 8:45pm and the restaurant was about 70% full.

A few items I wanted to order were sold out such as stinky tofu 臭豆腐 and red bean donuts 高力豆沙.

smoked eggs 燻溏心蛋: very nice, the eggs were cooked perfectly with smoky taste.

Squab with fried tea leaves 乳鴿: excellent, juicy squab and yummy tea leaves.

Spare ribs with preserved plum sauce 話梅骨: very good, crispy spare ribs and mouth-watering sauce. I ate a lot even though I do not like to eat pork normally.

Pan-fried crab roe and pork dumplings 蟹粉生煎包: crispy, juicy and not greasy. Good!

Veggies in fish soup: tender veggies and flavourful soup.

Goose liver in wine: liver was a bit harder than expected but the wine sauce was really nice.

Glutinous rice dumplings with sweet fermented rice and sweet osmanthus 桂花酒釀丸子: not as good as other Shanghai restaurants. The dumplings had sesame fillings. We preferred the traditional tiny plain ones.

Came with 3 other people for lunch on a weekday and noticed that it started getting busy at around 12.30.

Dining area is spacious, well-lit and comfortable, with contemporary Chinese style decor to match, like a typical modern upscale restaurant in metropolitan cities in China.

Good service with attentive, polite staff.

We ordered:

Ma lan tou ($46)
With mild seasoned filling, a mellow hint of sesame oil, served cold. A good start.

Spring onion pancakes ($22)
Surprise: not the usual airy puff pastry-life pancake, but more like flatbread, and deep fried. It may be different, but enjoyable in its own way, with greasy crunch mouthfuls.

Dan Dan noodles ($38)
Ordered without any specifications on spiciness, yet the soup base was still very spicy and left a stinging sensation in the mouth even after the meal. The oily soup surface looked like it was doused with a bottle of La You (oil-based chili sauce). Noodles itself was not particularly exceptional, perhaps it was spoiled by the overwhelmingly hot soup.

Steamed vegetarian dumplings ($30)
Skin is just right, neither too thick nor too thin, with a hearty chopped vegetable mixture. Will order again next time.

Regular Xiao Long Bao ($28)
Pork filling was juicy, very pleasantly sweet and skin doesn't break upon picking up.

Vegeable and meat Xiao Long Bao ($28)
Even better than the regular xiao long bao - slight addition of chopped leafy greens complements the juicy, soft pork filling very well. Even my meat-loving friend enjoyed it!

Sweet sticky rice roll ($22)
Particularly mentionable is the chopped peanut, white sesame and white sugar mixture, combining to give much texture and flavors that match well. The thoroughly deep-fried thin breadstick (you tiao), resulting in a in the gives extra crunch. Will try the savory rice roll next time.

Double-side fried noodles with shredded pork dipping soup ($60)
Freshly deep fried ramen was drained well so it doesn't feel greasy at all. Soup was particularly enjoyable, looked like hot and sour soup but plainly savory, with a consistency just right for dipping. Lots of julienned white bamboo shoots and bell peppers and soft shredded pork.

Egg white scallop fried rice ($62) (takeoput)
A very deceiving name, with minimal scallops - it might as well have been called egg white fried rice! Otherwise, the medium grain white rice was tossed well with the broken egg white, chopped carrots and siu tong choi (looks like pak choy but less crunchy, with a greener stem) Definitely not worth ordering.

Noticed they call themself the Dim Sum expert of Shanghai in the takeout bag; perhaps that explains their good dumplings and sticky rice roll, but the fried rice and dan dan noodles were not up to standards.

A good choice for a very comfortable experience, with good service and seating, but the quality of the food really depends on what you order.

It was of good impression of trying Wang Jia Sha back in few years ago, at their branch of Hung Hum and the Element.
Got a chance to try their newly opened branch at the Lee Gardens II. We ordered Xiao Lung Bao, fried Beef Cake and stir-fried lian gao (Shanghainese cakes).
All came with good quality works. The xiao lung bao was charged of HKD28 for 4 pieces, all very juicy and fresh - the taste was pretty good, not bad at all when comparing with the Taiwanese famous Ding Tai Feng. .
The beef cakes were also good too.
We would come back and try other dishes soon .